Waterford’s Austin Gleeson battling a nasty ear injury

Waterford star Austin Gleeson will wear ear protection against Tipperary in tomorrow evening's Bord Gáis Energy Munster Under-21 hurling final after sustaining an horrific injury during Sunday's senior win over Wexford.

A chunk of Gleeson's left ear was left hanging off during the closing stages of the All-Ireland quarter-final clash in Thurles.

Gleeson was temporarily replaced between the 64th and 69th minutes and was sporting a bandage over his ear yesterday when he attended a pre-Munster final event in Carrick-on-Suir.

Gleeson can’t recall the incident but revealed: “I felt my ear and felt a bit of blood on my hand. I was like ‘oh no, here we go again. I’ll have to go off for a blood substitute’.

“I thought it was only a little scratch but the physio came on and told me to put pressure on it.

“I put pressure on, took it off and then he put a spray and Vaseline on it to try and stop the bleeding.

“I had to go off the field and he told me after the game that when I took the pressure off it, there was a big chunk of it hanging.

“He didn’t want to tell me that on the field, he left it go.”

Gleeson is currently sourcing protective headgear to get him through tomorrow’s Walsh Park clash and he explained: “I’m not 100 per cent sure yet. I’ll have to get some protection for it – a new fashion statement! I think one of the lads in the club wasn’t far off the same kind of thing and had to wear something like an ear muff.”

Steri strips and glue are currently holding Gleeson’s ear together and he admits that sleep was hard to come by on Sunday evening.

"I went home and watched The Sunday Game, I tried to sleep but it didn't really work out too well. Any time I turned over, it was shooting up. I took two paracetamol."

However there is no danger of Gleeson missing out tomorrow evening as Waterford bid to win the Munster U-21 title for the first time since 1994.